Clifford Chance is shifting all its mainstream London corporate team to the same floor of its Canary Wharf building to raise cash in a move that also sees the firm trial an open-plan setting.
The firm is carrying out a staggered transfer of the team from the 21st to the 22nd floor of its London offices, with the space that is currently occupied by the team being marketed to prospective tenants.
One estimate being floated puts the annual business rate savings at £1m, based on the benefit of squeezing staff onto the same level.
In the meantime, the firm is looking to attract a long-term, high-quality tenant and has cleared the space on floor 21 to use as a show room.
The move excludes the financial institutions, funds, TMT and competition teams, which will be housed separately on their own floor.
The corporate team, which the firm split into three last year (31 January 2011), is currently housed over floors 21 and 22, with two of the groups on one floor and one on another.
The process to move the whole team onto floor 22 is being staggered over the course of a lengthy period, with a group transferring earlier this month and another team moving floors last Friday (11 May). The remainder are expected to transfer in a few months’ time. Other practice groups are unaffected.
A partner commented: “It’s kind of [about] integrating people, but it’s so that we have a better chance of renting out the building for a bit of cash. We save a huge amount in business rates.”
Meanwhile, the firm is trialling open-plan offices for the corporate team in the new set-up, with between a quarter and a third of the team - some volunteers, some forced - participating in the project, expected to last at least six months.
The move is understood to be generating an element of antipathy among partners, with one partner commenting: “How loud people whinge depends on what day of the week it is.”
A Clifford Chance spokesperson said: “Yes, some lawyers are moving between floors. This is business as usual – as we continue to seek ways of occupying our space more efficiently for our people and for our clients.
“There may be some open-plan offices in the new lay-out. There are many instances of open-plan working already in the office and we’ll continue to use this style of working where appropriate.”
Clifford Chance’s plans come amid the imminent departure of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a tenant, from the firm’s offices, while there is also speculation over whether FTSE Group will move out of its space in the building.
Readers' comments (28)
Anonymous | 14-May-2012 3:22 pm
Open plan is fine for a lot of the time (and can be more fun) but if you're used to an office it can be very hard to concentrate. The best solution is to make sure all staff use un-dockable laptops and have quiet areas they can go to when their neighbours get noisy (although I still miss my office and it's been 18 months..)
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Anonymous | 14-May-2012 4:08 pm
We have worked in open plan for over four years now - that includes partners. Generally, it works pretty well - it's easy to have informal discussions with colleagues and has facilitated team building. Yes, it can be noisy sometimes, but on other occasions (like right now) it's really quiet - the occasional low conversation. We have quiet rooms (with PCs) as well as meeting rooms for in-house meetings as well as the client meeting suite. So, if you have a telephone conference you book a meeting room; if you have something particularly complex to work on you go to a break out room. Provided people have consideration for their colleagues - and as professionals we should do - then it works pretty well.
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Odd Bins | 14-May-2012 4:48 pm
If all City firms go open plan where will the partners stash their Vodka bottles? And how will partners be able to spend hours reading the Daily Mail online while looking as if they are doing something very serious?
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Anonymous | 14-May-2012 5:27 pm
office hanky-panky will now be completely in the open - no more having to rely on gossip
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Anonymous | 14-May-2012 11:02 pm
As a former(recent) commercial litigator in a top 10 City firm, I now work in M&A , specializing in the profession services sector for a so called top ten global investment Bank. Open plan works in most law firms , who have chosen to adopt it, and now I am 3 years into working in Investment Banking, where everyone works in open plan, including senior managing directors. The very idea that Corporate Lawyers or any other Lawyer, can/t work in open plan is utter nonsense.
Accountants do it, Surveyors do it, Lawyers do it, M&A Bankers do it. It works and is cost effective, and enhances contact with colleagues!
We all from time to time do "academically" stretching work, and when one requires quiet they simply book a private office.
Lawyers get over yourself, it works for every other profession , and it will work for you! Welcome the Legal Service Act, those who don't will be working in McDonald's! Enjoy!?
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Anon | 15-May-2012 11:18 am
What is it with this constant juxtaposition of law and fast food.
Is the alternative to a career in law really limited to working in a fast food joint?
A while back there was thread to the effect that persons made redundant at Trowers & Hamlins were working at Burger King. Now we have a suggestion that if you can't hack open plan then off you go to McDs.
Is there no middle ground?
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Anonymous | 15-May-2012 1:57 pm
Anon @ 11:18am: I believe the middle ground is called Leon.
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Anonymous | 15-May-2012 2:15 pm
I worked in open plan at a City (500+) lawyer law firm. It was the most productive working environment I have worked in and I would recommend everyone give it a try. As for "shouty partners on a day long conference call" (or any shouty individual, for that matter) - that is sorted out with closed-door conference rooms. The only problems we experienced were when partners with over-inflated egos insisted that they needed to have their own corner offices, because (obviously) their work was so much more important and confidential than that of the rest of the team.
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B | 15-May-2012 2:41 pm
"..another nail in the coffin of the idea of corporate lawyers still being members of a profession rather than glorified call centre workers."
I've checked the dictionary definition and nowhere does it suggest that a profession is defined by the square metre count of a private office space.
Some other 'professions' seem to the handle the idea of shared work space really well without it affecting their productivity or needing to spend all of their time alone in order to think. Barristers appear to think fairly well on their feet despite the activity going on around them in Court. Consultant Neurosurgeons appear to be able to conduct ward rounds with other patients and medical staff present and even operate on brains with other people in close proximity. I've even heard of Teachers who work in spaces shared by up to say 30 other people some of whom may be talking at the same time without it affecting their productivity and ability to deliver results.
Adapt and overcome. Open plan is not the end of the world. That comes with hot-desking and oh, maybe losing your job because the business hasn't taken the opportunity to consider its spend on overheads or whether uber spacious offices and an amazing view of the London skyline is necessary to deliver excellence in legal services.
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Armageddon | 15-May-2012 3:00 pm
It is ludicrous for a law firm to pretend that an open plan working environment is conducive to anything other than cost savings. UK firms have historically stuffed several lawyers into offices and argued that it fosters teamwork and learning, when in reality it is like asking you to share a bed with a stranger, and yet continue to do your day job. I defy any lawyer who has worked in a shared office to say that they preferred it over their own office. When did you last visit your open plan doctor's surgery? And to think the law was once a profession - fortunately it is for some firms.
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